A General History of the Fur Trade. _ 27 



How far this conduct, if continued, may, at a future exi- 

 gency, keep these people in our interest, if they are even 

 worthy of it, is not an object of my present consideration ; 

 at the same time, I cannot avoid expressing my perfect con- 

 viction, that it would not be of the least advantage to our 

 present or future commerce in that country, or to the 

 people themselves ; as it only tends to keep many of them 

 in a state of idleness about our military establishments. 

 The ammunition which they receive is employed to kill 

 game, in order to procure rum in return, though their fami- 

 lies may be in a starving condition : hence it is, that, in 

 consequence of slothful and dissolute lives, their numbers 

 are in a very perceptible state of diminution. 



From the Detour to the Island of Michilimakinac, at the 

 confluence of the Lakes Huron and Michigan, in latitude 45. 

 54. North, is about forty miles. To keep the direct course 

 to Lake Superior, the north shore from the river Tessalon 

 should be followed ; crossing to the North- West end of St. 

 Joseph, and passing between it and the adjacent islands, 

 which makes a distance of fifty miles to the fall of St. Mary, 

 at the foot of which, upon the South shore, there is a vil- 

 lage, formerly a place of great resort for the inhabitants of 

 Lake Superior, and consequently of considerable trade : it 

 is now, however, dwindled to nothing, and reduced to 

 about thirty families, of the Algonquin nation, who are one 

 half of the year starving, and the other half intoxicated, and 

 ten or twelve Canadians, who have been in the Indian 

 country from an early period of life, and intermarried with 

 the natives, who have brought them families. Their induce- 

 ment to settle there, was the great quantity of white fish 

 that are to be taken in and about the falls, with very little 

 trouble, particularly in the autumn, when that fish leaves the 

 lakes, and comes to the running and shallow waters to 

 spawn. These, when salt can be procured, are pickled just 

 as the frost sets in, and prove very good food with potatoes, 

 which they have of late cultivated with success. The natives 

 live chiefly on this fish, which they hang up by the tails, and 

 preserve throughout the winter, or at least as long as they 

 last ; for whatever quantity they may have taken, it is never 

 known that their economy is such as to make them last 

 through the winter, which renders their situation very dis- 

 tressing; for if they had activity sufficient to pursue the la- 

 bours of the chase, the woods are become so barren of game 

 as to afford them no great prospect of relief. In the spring of 



